Cellforce will focus on high performance
Porsche owners are used to getting high performance from their cars. They expect to have the sportiest vehicles on the road and bristle at the notion that anyone could beat them off the line. So when they hear Porsche is investing in battery cell manufacturing for electric vehicles, they want to be sure those EVs have the most powerful cell going.
CEO Oliver Blume wants to reassure them that’s the case. “The battery cell is the combustion chamber of the future. As a new Porsche subsidiary, the Cellforce Group will be instrumental in driving forward the research, development, production and sale of high-performance battery cells,” Blume said in a statement. “This joint venture allows us to position ourselves at the forefront of global competition in developing the most powerful battery cell and make it the link between the unmistakable Porsche driving experience and sustainability. This is how we shape the future of the sports car.”
Partnering with Customcells, Porsche is launching Cellforce, a production plant with a minimum annual capacity of 100 MWh. That’s enough high-performance batteries for 1,000 cars, Customcells CEO Torge Thönnessen said. With silicon as the anode material, the venture will be able to produce more powerful batteries with less internal resistance than current models. Porsche’s current battery cells have a single-digit percentage of silicon in the anodes. Cellforce could bring that up to 50%, allowing the cells to run hotter than lithium-ion versions.
At least at first, Porsche’s focus will be on motorsports, a field in which the brand has a record 19 victories in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. But any innovations and lessons learned will be sure to find their way into the automaker’s future consumer EVs such as Taycan. One thing is for certain, Porsche owners can rest assured the manufacturer is striving to win any race it enters.
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